connecting to a network printer on PC

[shahvikram123]

I've got a HP-PSC-1210 connected to a PC which is shared on my network. My macbook is connected to that printer but i cannot send a print job from my mac to the HP printer...

what i've done so far is go to printer and fax preferences - clicked on the plus button

but then from there i dont know what to do so i guessed.

i clicked on IP printer and then in the address section i put in 192.168.1.1 (this is the address of the pc which the printer is connected to...)

and then under name i put in the sharing name which i assigned myself as HP from the PC.

and lastly for printer using i put in generic postscript printer...

i've got a feeling i have done it wrong because it doesn't print.
but can somebody plz tell me what im doing wrong and how to fix it plz....

thanks for any help in advance....;D

 

[kgeier82]

have u installed the printer drivers on the mb?

they are on HP site for osx.

 

[kgeier82]

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=219&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=90764&lang=en

 

[cwa107]

If you experience problems after installing the HP driver, it may be because the driver is not "network aware". This is a very common problem as the Mac drivers are not as flexible as their Windows counterparts. See this link for more information on how to work around.

 

[walmartconnect]

Hey sha, try this out:

Assuming that you are using simple Windows printer sharing on the other PC...

Instead of clicking on IP Printer, click on the "More Printers" button down at the bottom. In the next dialogue, you should see a list of all printers shared on your network (including those shared generically by Windows based machines). The rest should be simple if you make it to that point. I cannot remember if Mac has drivers for the PSC, if your printer is not listed, go with a generic one. Good luck.

 

[shahvikram123]

iv installed the printer drivers, from the CD, that didn't work so i downloaded drivers from the website which never worked either

I tried going to default browser after clicking on the plus sign and then selected windows printing then for the second one i chose network neighborhood and chose my workgroup and then printer...

but that still did not work

 

[walmartconnect]

Hmm, that leaves me stumped. I have been in situations where it just hasn't worked, Windows and Mac do not get along perfectly unfortunately

 

[cwa107]

iv installed the printer drivers, from the CD, that didn't work so i downloaded drivers from the website which never worked either

I tried going to default browser after clicking on the plus sign and then selected windows printing then for the second one i chose network neighborhood and chose my workgroup and then printer...

but that still did not work

This is a driver issue. I posted a link earlier to the Networking Printers FAQ. Did you read and follow the steps described?

 

[shahvikram123]

No, i think windows and macs do work together good, in general there great together, with sharing files, internet connection etc..the only problem seems to be network printing.... not sure if its a problem with the printer itself or Mac OS X...

Anyway no problem, I'll guess I'll just have to transfer the files manually and then print them out....

Thanks for your help ppl....

 

[cwa107]

No, i think windows and macs do work together good, in general there great together, with sharing files, internet connection etc..the only problem seems to be network printing.... not sure if its a problem with the printer itself or Mac OS X...

Anyway no problem, I'll guess I'll just have to transfer the files manually and then print them out....

Thanks for your help ppl....

I think you're missing my point, the link I posted for you explains exactly how to fix your problem. The problem is that your Mac is not using a driver for the printer that can be used on a network. The FAQ I linked to explains how to find the correct driver.

 

[NanoBite]

I've only ever been successful in network printing when I connected my printer to my Mac ...

 

[cwa107]

I've only ever been successful in network printing when I connected my printer to my Mac ...

That's likely because Windows handles port redirection a lot better than the Mac does (IMO). Basically, the Windows printer API lets the operating system handle how the printer interacts with the interface. From what I understand of the Mac, most of the time, the driver is written specifically to work with a particular interface (most commonly USB). So when you try to force it to use a network port instead of a physical USB port, it just doesn't work.

The Gutenprint drivers are different because they use an entirely different subsystem for printer handling. Unfortunately, Gutenprint doesn't have drivers for most of the modern printers out there. PrintFab does, but it's pricey. If you share the printer from your Mac instead, you'll find it's a lot easier to get a Windows printer driver to cope with printing on a network port.

I do hope that Apple addresses this at some point, but it seems unlikely given that most of the commercial printer drivers would need to be overhauled to work with a different printing subsystem.